Andy On the Road

I love writing. I am really excited about having this blog and writing in it. I started last year hoping to write regularly, but my schedule became overwhelming and blog-writing became a memory. I can’t really say that I regret the way I set my priorities last year, but I’m hoping to do more writing this year. So now, after a hiatus of more than a year- I’m back! Let’s see how this goes.

I’m still here in Nicaragua, and I love it more and more all the time. Sometimes life here is frustrating, but I guess life wasn’t that simple when I lived in Texas either. For now, I’m helping with a number of different projects. I have been translating class in one of our training programs, helping a little with our elementary school, organizing our regional conference, and preparing for our next Bible course which starts in June.

A week or two ago, some of the students and I decided to learn how to cut, open and drink coconuts successfully (without chopping off any fingers or getting coconut water everywhere)

I was mostly successful. And everybody enjoyed the coconuts!

I’m back in Nicaragua! It was difficult leaving my family, but I’m glad to be here.

Apparently, there is a lot of work to be done. Over a period of three days, I have mowed our giant lawn with a push mower by myself. When I asked about a weed-eater, they told me it was broken and they use machetes instead. Ha! I can’t imagine how much work that must be.

The house we ended up renting

I have spent the last two afternoons wandering around town with another staff member looking to rent a house for a family that is coming to do one of our training schools. I have learned a lot in the process. First of all, no one has a numerical address for their house. Addresses are something like: “From the grocery store, four blocks south, yellow house.” Second, there are no classified ads if you’re looking for an economical house in our town. What you have to do is, walk up to someone sitting in front of their house in a neighborhood you like and ask, “Do you know of any houses for rent around here?” If they say yes, you gather the cryptic description of where the owners (or landlords) live and go to their house. Once you get to the owners house you knock on the door and inquire about the house for rent. If you’re lucky, the owners are at home. If not, you might get to speak to a child or a neighbor who will tell you when to return. We spent a lot of time wandering the streets like this talking to people only distantly connected to a rental house. Third, when you finally do find a house, realize that houses with everything you need are expensive. We’ve been looking at houses to rent for between $60 and $300 a month. For this price you don’t get a lawn, stove, refrigerator, air conditioning, washer, dryer, etc. One house we looked at we were told had a garage to put a car in. It turned out the garage was right next to the kitchen- without a dividing wall. So you would basically be sitting at the table in the kitchen and be able to smell the gasoline from your car. I don’t think I would have designed a house that way.

Anyway, we did finally find a suitable house and the family is excited about coming. The school I’m staffing starts January 23. Until then, we have a lot of prep work to do and I should get back to it!

Last Friday, after being in Nicaragua only two and a half weeks, my sister Beth sent me an urgent email asking me to call her. I called her only to find out that my grandmother was sick and would most likely not make it through the weekend. I quickly found a plane ticket home, threw some things in a bag and arrived in Houston less than ten hours after getting the message.

When Beth picked me up at the airport, she hugged me and let me know that Grandmother had passed a few hours earlier. (We called her “Grandmother.”) In the car on the way back to my parents’ house, Beth told me a little about Grandmother’s last few days.

Grandmother had stayed characteristically positive right until the end and had more visitors than the nurses on her floor had ever seen a single patient have. Her sweet disposition and love for others inspired family, friends, church members (some of whom had barely known her) to not only visit once, but to return on multiple occasions. Knowing Grandmother, her visitors were equally blessed by visiting her as she was by their visit.

Only hours before Grandmother passed, the family stood around her hospital bed sipping coffee and talking. Grandmother reached onto her table and picked up a little cup of melted ice cream. Hardly able to speak, she held the little cup in the air and signaled that she wanted to say something. My uncle understood first, “She wants to make a toast!”

Grandmother pulled the oxygen mask away far enough to be understood, “I get to see Jesus first!”

She held her cup out and toasted everyone in the room. Upon noticing that my brother-in-law, Richard, didn’t have a drink, she made him get the bottle of water on the counter and toast her. Grandmother was certain that her time had come and her destination in heaven was secure. I am thankful for her life and grateful that her suffering has ended.

Cheers Grandmother!

Two nights ago, the preschool teacher, Corri, asked me to accompany her to visit the home of one of the students at the school here. When we arrived, we found the mother sick in bed. Her body was thin and her face pale. We began to ask her questions like, “What are the names of your children?” She could not remember all their names or their ages. She often just repeated our questions or statements back to us. She was obviously not in her right mind. She has four children and lives in a tiny cinder block house with a tin roof.

The neighborhood where the family lives.

Corri began to tell the mother about Jesus and both of us prayed for her and her husband. After chatting a bit more, Corri began to sing a worship song and then announced that I was going to sing a song too. I couldn’t refuse to sing, even though I don’t have a very nice voice and began to sing “Trading My Sorrows” in English. One part of the song says:

“I’m trading my sickness, I’m trading my pain, I’m laying them down for the joy of the Lord”

Corri joined in, singing in Spanish. The mother got up from her bed, sat in the rocking chair and began to rock.

Corri told me yesterday that the mother has continued to improve. Apparently, she is feeling better, moving around the house and talking more.

I don’t fully understand what is happening in situations like this. I don’t like to over-spiritualize every day events. People get sick and get better every day without a miraculous healing. However, it does appear to be obvious that the mother was sick and now her condition is improving. We did pray with her. We did ask God for help. The woman could not afford proper medical attention and I do believe that God desires to heal and answer prayer. Can I say definitively that God has miraculously healed her? No. Can I say that He has not? No.

I can thank Him in any case, because she is doing better. I don’t have to understand. I can continue to ask God to heal and move here in Nicaragua.

After more than a year of research, planning and preparation, I am finally in Nicaragua. Monday morning, I left my parents’ house at 3 am. Two flights, two car rides, and only 11 hours later I arrived at the YWAM base here in Diriamba, Nicaragua.

So far, everything is going really well and the base is very calm. I didn’t know what day of the week today was until I logged on to my computer. The K-6th grade school is on break right now and none of the training schools are running. Most of the westerners who work here have returned to the states to rest and be with family. As of right now, there is only one other native English speaker around. This is great for me, because it forces me to work on and improve my Spanish.

I have had multiple people bring me good books to read about Nicaragua, Latin-American history and culture.

Nicaragua is beautiful right now. The rainy season just ended and everything is bright green. Its been cloudy, which has kept the temperature down during the day and its cool enough at night for me to sleep all the way inside my summer sleeping bag. I’ve been drinking coffee and reading about Nicaraguan culture and Latin-American history. Its really good to be here.

So it’s all official. I leave for Nicaragua November 15th. My plane ticket has been bought and I will be there before I know it. A full week has passed since my last day of work in Sugar Land. It’s a lot to wrap my head around, but I’m excited.

I’m sitting in an airport in Portland, Oregon right now. I spent the last five days visiting old friends here in Oregon and I’m headed to Pennsylvania to see more. I’ll get back to Rosenberg on October 30th. My sister will get married a week later, and I’ll be gone a week after that.

Life is busy, but really good. It’s sad to think about leaving so many people here, but exciting to be headed for Nicaragua. Keep me in your prayers. I still have lots of things to take care of before I leave.

This is one of the programs I’ll be working with in Nicaragua.

On Sunday mornings, I sleep as late as I can, then get up and go to church. If I take the direct route, it’s about a ten minute drive to my church and I pass at least four other churches on my way there. If I go by Starbucks on my way there, I pass two more. We have churches in cathedrals, traditional church buildings, movie theaters and more than a few that rent space in public school buildings (including mine).  Spanish speaking churches are almost as easy to find as english speaking churches. Traditional worship services (think hymnal and organ) are probably just as common as contemporary services (think drums and guitars). Church is everywhere. Church people are everywhere. Its strange though, that with as much as us locals have in common, our churches rarely work together.

If I ever do see churches working together across denominational lines, it really stands out to me. How do you get Baptists to hang out with the Pentecostals? How do you get Black churches to work with White churches? (especially in the South) How do you get aging conservative churches to worship alongside charismatic churches? The only way it works, is if everyone agrees that the work they are doing is more important than the differences they have.

For the past eight years, my church has been part of what we call, ‘Mission Jerusalem.’ Mission Jerusalem is a week long inter-church outreach to our community. Though it is mainly a youth event, all ages of church members get involved. This year we had at least six different churches involved from diverse denominational and racial backgrounds.  Looking back, nothing we did was all that special. In the mornings we played with kids, visited the elderly, and met with people in our own neighborhoods. In the evenings we put on block parties with cheap food, live music and games for kids. What was special, was that very different churches came together with a single purpose and heart to reach our community.

I think a lot of people hear the word ‘church’ and think of close-minded, self-righteous know-it-alls who could hardly be characterized by the word ‘love.’ Those people are out there, but that’s not my church and its not the average of what I see in the other churches in my community. When I look at the churches in my community, I see people who desire to love and to serve. I see people who are willing to put aside their differences and work together.

I've already moved out of my house. This was a truckload of books.

When I graduated from High School and moved out of my parents’ house, I never wanted to live in my home town again. The world was a big place and I wanted to see all of it. Within a year of graduation, I had visited at least 10 different states and spent six weeks in Nepal and India. During what would have been my sophomore year of college (2002-2003), I moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina with big dreams of being a super-missionary. My dreams slowly faded after months on a bad mattress, meager income, and, uh… reality. Being a missionary turned out to be harder than I thought it would be. I moved back to Texas by the end of 2003.

Since returning from Argentina, I have been pretty busy. In 2004-2005 I went to Bible School and loved it. I have been a painter, tire changer, tire salesman, head lawn mower, construction worker, electrical-mechanical assembler, cook, dishwasher, salesman, and, for three days, a carpet cleaner. I have volunteered my time working with the homeless in Houston and the youth at my church. I spent a year working full-time with the Bible School I attended. My life has definitely been less than traditional, but nowhere near as romantic as I thought it would be.

Well, yet again, change is coming… and it looks like like I’m going back to full-time missions. I have been at the same job, in the same location for three years now. I have lived in the same little house for two. If everything works out, I’ll be moving to Nicaragua by this fall. There are all sorts of details to work out and things to do, but I it seems to be coming together. Once I know details, I’ll let you know more.